GRAHAM — Alamance County's courts are running as or more efficiently than other judicial districts with similar caseloads.

During the 2011-12 fiscal year, 1,789 criminal cases were filed in Alamance County Superior Court, according to statistics released by the N.C. Administrative Office of the Courts.

Two thousand cases were disposed of in that time through 29 jury trials, about 1,500 pleas and several hundred through dismissals. As of July 1, there were 897 cases pending. The median age of criminal superior cases in Alamance County was 131 days.

The number of cases filed and cleared here surpassed most nearby counties and some counties with larger populations. Alamance County’s population is about 153,000.

About half as many criminal superior court cases were filed and cleared in Orange and Chatham counties, which share judicial district 15B. Alamance is alone in District 15A.

In Forsyth County, which includes Winston-Salem and has a population of 355,000 — more than twice that of Alamance County — 1,500 cases were filed. There, District Attorney Jim O'Neill's staff cleared 1,542 cases and heard 63 trials.

Eighteen hundred cases were filed in Cabarrus County Superior Court, with about 1,300 cleared. Judges there heard 19 criminal jury trials. Cabarrus County is home to about 181,500 people. In Robeson County, where about 136,000 people live, 1,700 criminal superior cases were filed and 1,990 cases were disposed. Judges there heard 39 jury trials.

ALAMANCE COUNTY DISTRICT Attorney Pat Nadolski's office sets the county's trial calendars. Nadolski was generally pleased with the district’s statistics.

He emphasized that each judicial district has different resources to hold court and move cases, including the numbers of courtrooms available, judges allotted to the district and assistant district attorneys. Alamance County has two superior court judge positions that run criminal and civil superior courts. At least one session of criminal superior court runs each week here. Sometimes, like last week, both judges hear criminal superior cases.

Nadolski said he is comfortable with the number of trials held in superior court. He also pointed out that Alamance County Superior Court heard 52 trials in 2010-11.

“We do the people’s work and we get it done because we have to,” Nadolski said. “If you ask me if I need more people, heck yeah. I tell our representatives that every time I see them.”

In addition to Nadolski's elected position, Alamance County has 11 assistant district attorneys working criminal cases in district and superior court.

According to the N.C. Administrative Office of the Courts, Cabarrus County has an elected district attorney, Roxann Vaneekhoven, and nine assistant district attorneys. Forsyth County's staff dwarfs both those offices, with an elected district attorney, 25 assistant district attorneys and three additional grant or contract assistant district attorneys, said Sharon Gladwell, with the N.C. AOC.

Forsyth County holds a special session of district court to hear low-level felonies, Nadolski said. They are able to do that because they have more courtrooms and district court judges to hear those cases.

Page 2 of 3 - Nadolski pointed to districts’ median case ages as better gauges of how their court systems are running. Alamance County had the seventh-lowest felony median case age of the state’s 44 judicial districts, at 131 days. Judicial district 4, comprised of Duplin, Jones, Onslow and Sampson counties, had the lowest median case age at 96 days for felony cases.

CRIMINAL CASES ENTER the superior court calendar after defendants are indicted by the grand jury. Those cases then move to a superior court representation calendar, where court-appointed attorneys are waived or assigned, or onto a weeklong administrative calendar.

Held once every six weeks, administrative calendar weeks are chaotic. Hundreds of cases are moved through superior court in those weeks, with attorneys setting trial dates, taking pleas or continuing cases off the trial calendar. Defense attorneys also get their say when cases are heard.

This week is an administrative week, when trial calendars will begin being set for the first part of 2013. Nadolski plans to try at least three first-degree murder cases in the first six months of 2013.

On July 1, there were 17 first-degree murder cases pending in Alamance County. Since then, Nadolski’s office has cleared four of those cases.

Two other first-degree murder cases have also been added in that time: Marcus Spence and Brandon Malone, both of Durham, are charged in the Oct. 23 shooting death of Anthony Kivette Jones. They are scheduled to appear this week in administrative sessions.

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Making the cases

Here’s a look at Alamance County’s superior and district court cases — filed, tried or pending — between July 1, 2011, and June 30 this year.

1,789 felony cases filed

897 cases pending

131 median case age, days pending

2,000 cases disposed

20 jury trials, guilty verdict

9 jury trials, not-guilty verdict

184 pleaded to lesser charge

1,353 pleaded guilty, no contest

2,222 felony cases filed

1,269 felony cases pending

6,405 misdemeanor cases filed

3,453 misdemeanor cases pending

13,916 traffic cases filed

5,264 traffic cases pending

District court median case age:

Felonies — 152 days

Misdemeanors — 123 days

Traffic — 92 days

Cases disposed:

2,277 felonies

7,183 misdemeanors

13,765 traffic

Guilty plea, no contest:

220 felonies

2,825 misdemeanors

3,016 traffic

Trial, guilty verdict:

2 felonies

160 misdemeanors

27 traffic

Trial, not guilty:

0 felonies

93 misdemeanors

9 traffic

Page 3 of 3 - Case standings

Here’s where things stood with three individual charges in Alamance County Superior Court between July 1, 2011, and June 30 this year: